Man Accused of Tying Elderly Mother to Bed Arrested in Her Death

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A 47-year-old Costa Mesa man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and elder abuse in the death of his 80-year-old mother who was allegedly tied to her bed and left on the bathroom floor for days at a time, prosecutors said.

Robert Dickerman, 47, charged in death of 80-year-mother.

Robert Dickerman was arrested Tuesday, just over a year since police found his mother, Yoshiko Dickerman, lying in a pool of urine inside this home in the 900 block Azalea Drive.

Yoshiko Dickerman was dehydrated and covered with open sores, police said.

She died the next day at the hospital of sepsis.

Neighbors said they were shocked that something like this could happen to such a nice person.

“It upset me to think that she was apparently lying there for two on the floor,” neighbor Caron Hutton said. “I mean she was a nice lady no one deserves that regardless of how old you are or who you are, it’s just not a nice way to be found or be left.”

“She was a very nice lady and I feel terrible about what happened,” neighbor Barbara Torres said. “None of us neighbors knew what was going on, but she was a very private person.”

Torres thought Yoshiko had died of natural causes, until she saw Dickerson being arrested.

“I saw the police when they took him away shackled and handcuffed, yesterday, and I wondered what in the world is going on, I never dreamed of such a thing as that,” Torres said.

But Torres told KTLA she did have her suspicions about Robert Dickerman’s mental state. He had been caring for his mother since 2001, and had a tendency for hoarding, according to Torres.

Authorities say the home was extremely dirty and cluttered.

Dickerman is being held on $1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.